Unnamed
by Ihasabukkit
Summary: A crossover between the Evangelion and Gundam Wing Universes. After the revelation that there is another civilization in their solar system, Shinji and the other Eva children find themselves fighting side by side with darker counterparts.
1. Chapter 1

Hi! This is an ongoing fanfic combining Evangelion and Gundam Wing. I apologize if the writing gets clunky at times; I am very much in the stage where ideas are going faster than second drafts, and while I plan to rewrite eventually...I'm going to stick up chapters as soon as I crank them out, because feedback would be great. Especially for the characterization of the Eva kids. Thanks!

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Shinji and the other children sat in their classroom. Outside, rain poured down into the pavement, leaving puddles that they would have to slosh through once the bell rang. Shinji leaned his hand against his chin, and wished he could do that right now. Two more hours. And still their tutor droned on, and he didn't doubt that it would be interesting, if only her voice didn't have that soporific effect. He looked over, and Rei was in the usual position, with the usual expression, staring sedately into the rain, the silver, the grey. That was who she was. Just yesterday, she had smiled at him. Shinji wondered if she would do it again. It had been beautiful. Asuka had been chattering incessantly, and flirting shamelessly with another student in their class. Shinji had been walking by while carrying some books, and she hadn't noticed when her hair, flung out with a flirty laugh, had wapped Shinji in the face. Shinji had sneezed, and rolled his eyes...and looked over just in time to see a smile grace Rei's lips. They had made eye contact, and Shinji has smiled back. Now, as she melted in with the silver rain behind her, she seemed like a new person. Just one smile.

Shinji looked up as the teacher suddenly stopped talking. She was looking at a beeper. "Class, we will be having a quick ten minute break. Don't leave the building. Shinji, Rei, Asuka, I'd like to see you in private for a moment."

The class erupted into a bubble of chatter, and Shinji reluctantly rose and walked down the aisles. Rei was already at the front desk, and Asuka left a conversation to wander up, her eyes glittering with savage interest.

"You are to return to Nerve headquarters. I have no idea why, they won't tell me." The teacher looked slightly miffed. "But don't think I'm going to let you off. I want all of you to do the full reading, and I've posted HW problems on the class website. You'll have them for tomorrow, of course?"

They nodded, Asuka adding a "humph".

"Good. You're excused."

-----

An hour later found them at NERVE Headquarters, sitting in a conference room with the head scientist. Ritsuko looked down on them from the head of the table.

"We feel that we ought to fill you in on a new situation that has come up. I hate to add more complications to your lives, but this change of events will effect you three immensely."

Asuka gave the adult a sharp, almost petulant look. "If you found a new child, we don't need one. I'm doing perfectly fine." She looked over at Rei. "Though I suppose a backup wouldn't be a bad idea for certain people..."

"Asuka." Ritsuko matched the sharp look. "We are not replacing any of you. Though we may very well have found some reinforcements."

She twitched a pointer at the screen, and a series of graphics appeared. "For several years now, a department of NERVE has been doing research on where the angels come from. What they found is incredibly interesting. If you remember your history, try to recall when the first Mars colonizations took place."

"800 hundred and 3 years ago." Asuka smirked, and Ritsuko nodded, pulling up a new set of graphics.

"And of course, we know how the space colonization efforts managed to reproduce earth's ecosystems and habitats on the planet, by using chemicals to manipulate the atmosphere. And once Mars became established as a self-sufficient planet, we cut off communication. Our governments worried that if we kept communication networks between the planets open, that would lead to trade, leading to power struggles, and ultimately leading to war."

Shinji frowned, and was about to open his mouth, but Asuka beat him to the punch. "In school they told us we still have contact with Mars."

Ritsuko nodded. "Simple propaganda. Communications between the two planets have been dead for 700 years. The earth government ensures it. But back on topic. For the past couple decades, our special NERVE department has been keeping an eye on Mars for angels."

Shinji shifted in his seat. True, they all knew about the Mars colonization, but this was completely different from what they were fed in school. This was more interesting than anything he had heard in months, and he felt that they were being told something big; something that few people were privy to.

Ritsuko took a sip of water and cleared her throat. "Now I know you probably have no idea where this is going, but stay with me. I need to give you this background. Now, to sum it up, no angels have been detected around Mars. However, we had the extremely unique chance to observe Mars, considering that the entire planet is a black hole of information to the general population. What we've discovered about their civilization could change the course of everything we are doing to battle the angels."

New graphics appeared on the page, and a series of television spots flashed on the screen, showing men in business suits orating, and people in strange, British style uniforms. All three pilots watched in fascination, and Shinji and Rei shared a rare glance; it didn't pass them by that they were witnessing real footage of Mars. It was like seeing a unicorn.

"Over 600 years ago, the Martian government began a special program of re-education of their citizens. All records were erased, and children were carefully fed altered history books; well, in short, the colonists of Mars have been raised under the impression that they are in fact on Earth."

"Holy crap." Shinji was pleased to see that Asuka was flabbergasted at this information, even as he closed his own hanging jaw. "They actually believe that they are on Earth?"

"Completely. They so completely eradicated the history of the recolonization that even government leaders are ignorant of their true origin. This has allowed a fascinating and sophisticated culture to grow on the planet, one that mirrors the real earth in many ways." Ritsuko looked at the gaping youngsters and sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry to dump so much novel information on you at one time. It took us years to figure this out, and we've had years to absorb it. If I had my choice, I would be telling you this over a longer period of time. But a turn of events has given us no choice, so please, just bear with me, and quit gawking so much." A stern look. "And I don't need to give you the spiel about classified information. What I've told you in this half hour is more information than anyone else earth is privy to, excluding myself and a select few Nerve researchers."

Ritsuko didn't wait for an answer, but went straight on talking. "I'm going to gloss over the political structure of Mars, for time, and also because we don't know much about it ourselves; we've had other priorities. But here is a synopsis. Three hundred years ago, a coalition of established countries placed five colonies into orbit around Mars. They are largely self-sustaining, though they do depend on the planet for metal resources. The technology these colonies exhibit is fantastic, and not only does it rival the mechanical creations of home Earth, I would say that it is greater. True, they have no where near the biological sophistication of our own planet, but their mechanical ability is extremely advanced.

"And that brings us to mobile suits." A bizarre machine flashed onto the screen; a rather grainy 3-d rendition of a blocky robot, humanoid in form, a mechanical foil to the sleek organic contours and lithe muscles of the Eva's, Shinji thought. His mind reeled with the information he was taking in. They needed time to digest this massive addition to their understanding of the world. Ritsuko, however, seemed to have other ideas, and she plowed onwards.

"The different countries use them for defense and warfare. The main models are piloted by individuals, and are essentially humanoid tanks with guns. Over the past several hundred years, these weapons have become more and more advanced, largely due to the innovations of several specific countries. We don't know much about the older models, but we do know quite a bit about the last hundred century, thanks to one of our employees, who managed to infiltrate a military library on a meteor outpost."

Asuka shoved her way in. "Does that mean NERVE has actually visited the planet? That was forbidden by the UN, and if you were detected, wouldn't that make the people realize that they aren't really on Earth? I mean-"

"Patience, young woman, I'm getting there." Asuka closed her mouth with an impatient snap, and Ritsuko looked at all three of them with a hint of sympathy. "I can only imagine that questions that you are holding in. I know this is mind-blowing. But just listen."

"Unfortunately for the people of Mars, the military power inherent in the suits has led to international conflicts, and more recently, conflicts between Mars and the satellite colonies." A graphic of a blue and green Mars flashed on the screen, with large blue circles, no doubt representing the colonies, orbiting around it. "The colonies are by nature pacifistic, we have discovered, but somehow a recent conflict on Mars was taken up into space. The leading regime used mobile suits to take control of the colonies, and the colonies, without weapons, were helpless. These are the mobile suits commonly seen on earth, built by an organization called OZ. Taurus is land-based, and Aries is air based, all extremely effective fighters." Ritsuko sighed longingly. "You have no idea how helpful a squadron of these machines could be against an angel. The mechanical firepower of our military pales in comparison...I'm getting off topic. God this is a lot to cover." Ritsuko massaged her temples and looked at the three kids. This time Shinji felt a flash of sympathy for her; he could only imagine the different things running through her head.

"We're taking a break. I need to organize my thoughts before we get to the meat of this." And with that Ritsuko swept out of the room.

Rei looked over at Shinji, and he was amazed to see her stunned expression. He was sure his wasn't less. Asuka burst out in an amazed voice, "do you realize what we are hearing? This is mind-blowing! I mean, not even the leading world officials know anything about this-" Shinji focused his eyes on her but wasn't listening; too much was going on his own head. Asuka was dealing with the overload by talking, he and Rei by silence.

"I'm back! Ok, lets get this over with." Ritsuko rushed back in with a determined energy, took a sip, and started talking again.

"The gundams. We've gotten to the Gundams. The colonies could not defend themselves in an obvious way, and so they resorted to hit and run terrorism that could not be traced back directly to the colonies. Somehow the colonies each produced a gundam, essentially a super mobile suit. They are built out of gundanium, an alloy that can only be produced in the zero gravity of space. We ourselves haven't produced this metal, and it is just one other way that this Mars planet has surpassed us technologically. So the Gundams. They are fantastic. Phenomenal. Here, I'll show you what we've discovered about them."

All three pilots gasped as a robotic monstrosity appeared on the screen. A tiny head, massive chest, solid, gorgeous, and so radically different from their own Eva's. It was pure mechanics, and Shinji didn't know what to think about them. "This is the Gundam nicknamed Sandrock. There are four others, one for each colony, and for the past seven months they've been wreaking havoc on earth, taking out the military outposts of different governments."

Grainy footage of flashes and explosions appeared on the screen, and they realized that they were watching a space battle, of the sorts that Shinji remembered from those ridiculous sci fi movies he had watched as a young child. Dogfights, they called them.

"Two months ago, however, these war-machines stopped fighting. Apparently the large opposing force on Mars threatened to fire on the colonies unless the gundams stopped their activities, and the gundams disappeared."

"And now we come back to us. Our NERVE unit had been using an abandoned government shuttle on the Martian moon as this unfolded, and by some sort of freak chance, we contacted to designer of one of the Gundams. Dr. J. We have reason to believe that this man is one of the few Martians who knows the history of the planet, and had been watching for surveillance activities from our planet for years. He got us into contact with the other designers of the gundams; there are five of them in total, all codenamed after letters. We told them about the angels, and the Evas, and NERVE, and the three of you. We told them how we were looking for the source of the angels, and how much we could utilize any force that would give us an advantage. Like I said, even a simple squadron of basic mobile might help us if an angel attacks soon, but there's no way we could get our hands on them. Between breaching the silence between the two planets, and covering our tracks, it would be near impossible. But the Gundams...these terrorist machines are unusual in that they are essentially shunned by earth, and invisible to their home colonies."

"Those machines are coming here." Asuka glared up at Ritsuko. "I get it, but I don't like it. We are doing a damn good job fighting the angels ourselves, look how we beat the last one. We don't need those things to take over for us! I mean, how do we know that they would even last one minute? It could be they'd be useless, or a huge disaster-"

"Asuka!" Ritsuko glowered at the girl. "Yes, that's the punch line; we're hoping to use the mobile suits against the angels. But it's complicated, and you are in no way being replaced. The contrary, the hope is that you will be bolstered. The evas are our first defense, but anything we can do to help them is invaluable.

"Two gundams are currently heading towards Earth. How we managed to negotiate this with the creators is complicated; if you want to know more, I can give you a basic outline later. They will be entering the moon's orbit within the week. Listen to me now, carefully. This is going to get complicated. To maintain the silence between Mars and Earth, we are going to project to the world that they were engineered and created by NERVE." She paused slightly to let the words sink in. "This will hopefully keep the media from discovering that we've made contact with Mars. We also don't want governments trying to petition Mars for weapons, support, anything. It would end in nothing but war, and with the Angel threat as it is, Earth could face disaster."

"Why are you telling us all this? If this information is like a time-bomb; I mean, what if one of us accidently lets something slip?"

"You won't let a word slip. Not a phrase." The steely assurance in Ritsuko voice chilled Shinji to the bone. "If you do, people will die. And why am I telling you? If you want to know the truth, I had to convince Gendo let me tell you this much, and that involved over a week of pleading. Listen; Misato is also aware of this new development, if you need someone else to talk to. But no-one else. I knew I had to give you the truth, because I would have to give you explanations anyway. Better to get it out before you get strange impressions. Also. If all goes as planned, you are going to be spending time with the pilots of the Gundams."

This time even Asuka was speechless. "If the Gundams prove to be a useful tool against the Angels, you will need to work with them in the Evas. You will need to understand the pilots' psychology, and vice-versa. That can only be achieved by direct contact."

Ritsuko snapped off the graphic. "They will be arriving within the week. We'll try to give you heads up on what to expect." There was a pause. "Off the record, we ourselves aren't sure what to expect, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and we're plunging in head first. We're depending on you three to connect with these pilots, both in person and suited up. There are just two of them, one for each mecha. We don't know more than that."

Ritsuko heaved an exhausted sigh and collapsed into a chair. "Dismissed. I'll answer questions later. That means you, young lady."

Asuka glared. "Fine. We'll do our homework, and meditate, or something. Can't you tell us anything more? How old are the pilots? Suit stats? Anything?"

"Not now. Dismissed."

Defeated, Asuka and her red hair flounced out, and Shinji and Rei filing after.

Ritsuko waited for the door to seal shut, before she bent forward and started massaging her temples. "God, do I need some coffee."

"Hard liqueur might do more good, Akagi." The blond captain looked as Misato entered the back door. "But good job with all that updating! I think you managed to condense the biggest hairball of the century."

"Where you listening? That's a great breach of code, woman." Ritsuko stood up and wandered over to the computer terminal. "If you had been a UN representative, you could have very well doomed the world to a horrible fate."

"But I ain't, missy, and won't ever be! I swear all those politicians must have serious digestive problems, with that attitude of theirs. I noticed you didn't explain the political situation more."

"I'm not sure if I even understand it myself, it's all happening so fast. You know our communications with this Dr. J have been, enigmatic, at best. That man is up to something, and I don't know if I like it."

"Well, it's just more complex than our childish understandings can wrap around, that's all." Misato chuckled and leaned back with her arms behind her head. It was a sensual pose, and Ritsuko could think of a large number of men who would gawk at the sight. "He wants production blueprints on the evas, which isn't asking for much, when you think about it. It's a mutually beneficial sharing of technology."

"Except they are using their technology for warfare, to kill. It still worries me."

"I just hope that this doesn't disturb the silence between Earth and Mars. This man seems to have known the truth for a long time and not spoiled it, so he must know how disastrous it would be. Gol, if so much as a hint gets out to the media, we are going to need some serious damage control put in place."

"Remember, only our scientists will have access to the machines, and there is no reason for the public to suspect that we didn't create the suits ourselves. Speaking of which, how is that fuel shipment working out? If we don't have fuel for the suits when they arrive, they might not be much help..."

"Um, it's getting there. Asking for several tons of specially treated crude oil is a bit awkward, and the Alaskan government is already on bad terms with us..."

"You're just sitting on your lazy ass drinking beer and eavesdropping on others, is the only problem I see. Get that shipment up and working, or else, buddy."

"Geewhiz, blondy, take it easy. I'm more worried about atmospheric entry, if you want the truth."

"According to the information from the suit designers, they both should be able to handle entry easily. The pilots will be given coordinates to land in the sea just off the Japanese coast, in a military training area. Shouldn't be a problem."

"And if people ask?"

"We tell them we were testing the machines to make sure they could handle the heat."

"Fine." Misato sighed, and looked pensive. "I'm actually like you, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. I mean, if he gundams are so important to the civil wars over there, why are the creators risking them on a whole nother planet? Yeah, yeah, I know the rational reasons, and they all cue up. Well, forget it. With three evas and two warmachines, we have one helluva chance against the next angel, maybe the next couple of angels. How long do we have until they arrive?"

"Our Mars team reported that shuttles carrying the suits just passed that asteroid field marking the halfway point. We have 6 days and three hours." She shot Misato a pointed look. "To get fuel, and a communication system up and running."

"On that too. Quite worrying. Lt.. Johnson said that the suits use a basic communication system with high frequency radio waves. Finding their signal shouldn't be a problem." She groaned. "Now I have the distinct pleasure of explaining every little detail to our feisty miss Asuka; thank you, oh head scientist."

"You know it. Now to work."

Misato gave a sloppy salute and charged out of the room with her customary energy.

--------

"Shinji, quit looking so confused." Asuka glared over at the boy as they mounted the steps to Misato's apartment. "If you tried thinking a little, you'd see it made sense. I already have it worked out in my head."

Shinji blinked up at her, shyly. "Maybe. There are just so many things that aren't adding up. I mean, people on Mars can see Earth from where they are. How can they be ignorant of such a huge fact?"

"People are stupid, that's why." Shinji looked up again, this time in surprise.

"You can't believe that."

"Prove me wrong! I mean, all they have to do is teach their kids that this Earth was Mars, and just another uninhabitable planet. That's not hard to do, and people believe whatever you tell them. I mean, did you know that Misato is having an affair with Ritsuko?"

"WHAT?"

"Just kidding!" Asuka taunted in a singsong voice. "See, even you are dumb as a stump sometimes, Eva pilot or whatever! Guess that leaves saving the world up to me..."

Shinji sighed and set down his books, Asuka rummaging around in the refrigerator. Shinji tried very hard not to focus on the butt shamelessly sticking out of the appliance. "I'm not going to think about it too hard. I bet we'll get to know all the details when the pilots get here." Asuka sighed and looked heavenward as she emerged with an arm full of sandwich makings. "They could be devastatingly handsome, heroic men fighting for their cause against all odds, kind hearted, intelligent, brave..."

"They might be women, too."

"Humph. Well, that would be alright, too, I suppose. As long as I get to wean as much golden information out of them as possible. I mean, these people are from an entirely different civilization, and I'm gonna be one of the few people that actually gets to interact with them! Talk about the anthropology opportunity from heaven."

"I wonder what they'll think about us." Shinji paused, thinking over what he had to say carefully. "We're only fourteen...and..."

"And you seem like a twelve year old wimp that doesn't know how to operate a toaster? Yeah, you can worry, but I'm not going too. I plan to impress a bit." Asuka stretched out her full length with a smirk, smugly watching Shinji squirm. "I feel that I'm a fully competent pilot, though you and Rei might want to work on your image..be more confident and pilot like or something. Otherwise you guys are stuck with a serious inferiority complex."

Asuka took her sandwich and left Shinji alone in the kitchen, the conversation (albeit largely one-sided) considered closed. Shinji felt a butterfly of anticipation in his stomach, a feeling he hadn't felt for quite some time. Naturally, a feeling of dread clawed right along with it...but that never quite went away anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

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Holy Mother of Jesus, that beeping is annoying. Is it my alarm? No. Well, maybe. Maybe it's Howard's ship alarm, that thing is always going off for the dumbest reasons. Like when Joel the mechanic accidently lit his pant leg on fire and activated the fire-alarm...gol, that was funny...I can't open my eyes. Damnit, concentrate harder. I have to wake up, effing alarm, I'm trying already...wtf, I can't move. Duo Maxwell don't sleep through nobody's business, this ain't kosher...am I drugged?

Duo felt a growing knot of panic in his stomach as he tried to obtain control of his limbs. Something wasn't right, and to his frustration, he couldn't place what it was. Drugged. He was drugged. He had to regain consciousness. Come on, just focus on the eyelids. God they were heavy.

"Duo Maxwell! Come join the living!"

With a sudden jolt, Duo felt his body return to his control, and he was horribly, horribly awake, staring at the revolting head of Dr. G.

"What the...wha...wha..."

Dr. G laughed in what Duo though was totally unwarranted amusement at his situation, and it was not helping lift the fog of confusion.

"What the fuck, old man, what the fuck is going on?"

Dr. G drew back a bit from the spitting boy, an image, duo realized. He was looking at a large vid screen.

"Calm down, young man. You are currently en route to a whole new set of circumstances-"

"What the hell are you doing, you crazy nut?" Duo rolled panicked eyes around himself...the drugs must have still been in his system, because nothing was making any sense...and just then, he recognized the joystick of his Gundam, and it all came flooding back.

A meeting with Dr. G on one of the abandoned outer colonies. Sneaking through his security measures out a sheer distrust, and surprising Pestilence in a strange center room. Settling down for a good long talk where he planned on voicing many of the problems he saw with their current strategy. Utter surprise when Chang Wufei walked in as well, a quick feeling of "danger" in the pit of his stomach- then blackness.

Duo flashed his eyes towards the vid-screen and snarled. "You. What the fuck are you doing to me."

"Duo, I must say, you are one of the most untrusting individuals I have ever encountered. What do I have to do to make you trust me a little bit?"

"Not what you're doing right now, doctor. This is not...a good...start." Duo tried to calm himself down, before he worked himself into a real panic. He was definitely in the cockpit of Deathsythe, constrained by his harness, but nothing else. He was in a spacesuit, he noticed, and on his left arm, he was overwhelmed to find an IV had been ducktaped to his arm, with some injection mechanism attached to the fluid bag. He angrily ripped it out and looked back at the doctor. He tried to take a deep breath. "Explain."

"Well, if you have calmed down enough to listen."

Duo glared daggers but didn't otherwise respond.

"You are currently en route to the planet Mars. There is no turning back, because if you try, you will run out of fuel and starve to death. I do regret having to drug you, my boy, but knowing your mercurial and strongwilled temperament, I really had no other choice."

Duo had to use every ounce of his control not to strike out at his mentor, image or not. If there was one thing he hated...hated...it was having things forced on him by others. Especially when, he was loathe to admit, the "other" had been somehow he had allowed himself to moderately trust.

"Now, young man, you don't need to hate me. I can see your expression well enough." The old man chuckled again. "I have a new mission for you, and it is in every way a noble one, one that will help the colonies immensely."

Duo looked up at the screen through his bangs. "What mission would that be? Retiring Deathsythe to an abandoned planet, locking the pilot inside to ensure safe landing, and then letting the pilot starve to death? Yeah. That sounds like it will reallly help the colonies."

Dr. G looked somewhat miffed. "I'm not so heartless or stupid as that, Duo. Have a little faith in me. The mission is otherwise."

"And if I refuse said mission?"

"You won't. It's your choice, of course, but if I know you at all, Duo, you won't let innocent people perish when you have the power to stop it." Dr. G stopped as someone outside the screen mumbled to him, and Duo blinked when Dr. J shoved his goggled head into the side of the screen.

"Duo! Good to see you alive and well, m'boy." Heero's doctor, Duo thought. Something strange was up, alright. "Well, I've just broken the news to Wufei, and he was just as furious as you look right now! You boys have really got to loosen up a little."

Duo snarled, but then realized that physically, the Doctor was right. His body was so tense that he probably would have bounced if dropped...and he mentally forced some of his muscles to relax. His mind, however, was stuck in "oh shit" mode.

"Mr. Maxwell." Dr. G shoved his compatriot more to the side, and tried to pull off a fatherly, kind expression. If Duo hadn't been so wound up, he would have liked a picture of that face, just for the absurdity. "How would you like to know that Mars isn't actually abandoned? It is, in fact, rolling with all sorts of people, just like a full-blown colony."

"Bullshit. No one could maintain a colony without some access to earth. That's ridiculous."

"Well, it would be just as ridiculous for me to send my precious gundam to an empty rock, now wouldn't it?"

"You forget, this is MY gundam, you egoist," Dr. G shot snidely from the side.

"Both points valid," Dr. J grinned, before turning back to an unusually silent Duo. "I see you learned how to listen, young man. Maybe Heero rubbed off on you a bit." Duo narrowed his eyes, but stayed silent, waiting for the explanation.

"Mars has a very large, er, colony, I suppose you could call it. And recently it came to my attention that they are desperately in need of some assistance. And," J waggled his finger as if to emphasize the next words, "in return for such assistance, they are willing to share with us technological advancements that could very well make this unfortunate war a thing of a past."

"Bastard. We don't need new war machines. That's what started the fighting in the first place. And if you're sending me to fight some other people's worthless war, I gotta say fellas, you shouldn't have wasted your time. I was more than ready to self-destruct that first day, and I'm more than willing to try it again."

"Boy, don't be stupid, I know you would give your left arm for a machine that could destroy Oz. And I'm not sending you to fight some political war. The problem they have is much more desperate-"

"J! Hurry up, you have three minutes before the transmission ends-"

"Fine. Listen up, boy. You and Altron are going to be planetside in three days, so prepare. The whole planet is under attack by some sort of unknown, um, how would you describe them...aliens, of sorts, trying to exterminate the whole population."

Duo's eyes bugged. "I am sooo up the rabbit hole."

"But above all else, when you get there, do not, I repeat, DO NOT-" Duo winced as Dr. J shoved his huge goggled face right into the camera, "Do not let the public know that you are not from their planet. They call Mars Earth, so you and Chang and that beautiful Gundam of G's ARE FROM EARTH. Got that?"

Duo found himself nodding dumbly. He honestly didn't know what else to say or do at this point.

"Good. Their leading organization in combating the threat is called NERVE. They will contact you. Everything else you need to know is saved on Deathsythe's computers."

Duo blinked, before managing to choke out, "Wufei?"

Dr. G shoved his head back in, eyes twinkling. "You two are in this mission together. Listen, Duo, don't get into too much trouble - last thing we need is for you to blow their planet up. Oh, and you might want to pull that IV on your right arm out, too; otherwise you'll get a nice dose of REM sleep in about five minutes. Cheers!" With scary grins and gleefully waving hands, the two men disappeared in a flash of static.

Duo decided that without a doubt, he wouldn't regret killing those men.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO 

"Zerofive, this is Zerotwo, come in. Zerofive, this is Zerotwo."

Chang Wufei resisted the urge to glower at the mike. He was sitting crosslegged on the seat of his Gundam, floating several inches above the bottom in the zero gravity, his body tugging gently against the harness. He was trying very hard to regain some of his uncaring calm, a calm that had just been tested to a new extreme. He cursed as another surge of anger went through his body, and focused on breathing. "There is strength in calm, there is strength in patience;"

"Zerofive, pick up the goddamn mike and quit ignoring me! Come in, 05! It's your friendly neighborhood pal, who happens to be in the same asshole of a situation as you are, like it or not, you stick up your butt, self-righteous-"

That's the limit, Wufei thought, as he slammed open the communications channel. A maniacally grinning idiot was instantly looking back at him through the static.

"Geez, man, what took you so freakin long? I've been calling you nonstop for four hours, asshole."

Wufei fought the impulse to turn off the com again, and instead gave Duo the look of sheer fury and disdain that cowed most men. The grinning boy was apparently too stupid to get the hint.

"I was going to start singing pretty soon, too. Thought annoying you might get your attention...but apparently insults work just fine. Good to know, man, considering it looks like we're going to be working together." The boy's large eyes looked up through his bangs, laced with a sudden look of anger. "And don't think I'm happier about this than you are, pilot."

"Hh." Wufei crossed his arms and leaned back, studying the face in front of him. "I suppose you are aware of the situation."

"Yeah, I've been looking at the files. Not that those old fuckers told us much."

Wufei snorted in disdain at the American's blatant disrepect for the elders. As conniving as those men were, they had created Nataku, and he had only the greatest respect for such an endeavor. Well, maybe not anymore.

"They said enough." He looked at the flashing vidscreens of the cockpit, focusing on the planet that had been growing steadily larger over the last day. "We will survive landing, and then find a way to return to the colonies."

"Yeah, that would be nice, but I hope you don't have real high hopes." Duo snarled. "You looked at these shuttles we're in? Sure, they'd do just fine in a vacuum space landing. But they aren't going to do us much good where we're going."

"The colony will no doubt have normal docking facilities."

"Wufei, I suppose you haven't hacked into the file metalanguage yet? Figures, you probably ain't a real computer guy like me an Heero. Well, I've got news, man. Mars has atmosphere, and more than that, it isn't a colony-looks a like a whole fucking planet, ozone, biosphere, the whole works."

Wufei stared in disbelief. "You're lying."

"Duo Maxwell doesn't lie, man!" The braided boy let out a wild hoot of laughter. "And everyone on Earth thinks it's just a dead floating rock! Can you imagine how people will react when they find out! Holy shit, I don't know how the government managed to keep that one secret. Must have all the astronomers under some kind of "speak-and-you-die" agreement."

Wufei ignored the pilot as he started punching away at the computer console. Sure enough, when he applied a simple "reveal" program to the files, a whole new planet synopsis scrolled out of the meta-language. Duo had been smart to look, and he felt mildly irritated he hadn't thought of doing so himself.

"Anyways-", Duo didn't let Wufei's inattention stop his stream of talking, "these shuttles will just get massacred in reentry. So we're stuck on that planet until we find transport, and it looks like their space technology is pretty primitive."

"I'll find a way, even if I have to build my own transport. I have blueprints."

"Build your own interplanetary transport? Sure, man, whatever." A sudden gleam of interest appeared in Duo's eye. "So, cough it up."

"Use proper speech, idiot. Cough what up."

"How'd J and G nab ya?" Duo leaned forward, his wide smile belying the now grave look in his eyes. "I know you aren't the kind of guy who lets himself get screwed over, and I'm making the assumption that you didn't volunteer for this."

"No. I didn't." Wufei tried to lapse into silence, but sighed when Duo just waited expectantly. Ignoring the boy, he knew, would only make him more obnoxious.

"Doctor O said he would transport Nataku back to space if I met with him. I upheld the agreement."

Duo nodded thoughtfully. "Same here. I don't think I could have got Deathsythe back into space without Gs help, though I hate to admit it. That man's got a a real screwy understanding of favors, though, if this is his idea of coming even. I don't know what they did to you, but-"

"Maxwell. Unless you have something worth saying, shut up."

"Geez, man, you don't need to be an asshole about it. I'm just saying that-"

"Shut up."

"Fine." Duo leaned back in his chair and looked at Wufei with an unreadable expression. More importantly, his mouth wasn't moving, and Wufei turned his attention back to the files with relief. A full minute passed, then two, and Wufei started to feel that this was getting to be almost too good...

"You do know we've been out here for a month, right?"

"Shut uh---WHAT?"

Duo roared with laughter, and Wufei realized that he'd graced the moron with an unguarded look of horror. He quickly schooled his features back into what he hoped was his usual expressionless mask, with an accessory glare.

"Ahahaha, you should have seen your face, oh my god," Duo held his stomach as he gasped for air, and Wufei found himself reaching for the comlink switch. He didn't need this mockery.

"Wait, don't go, man." Duo tried to control himself as he sucked in a breath. "I'll be good, promise."

"Then shut up and explain."

Duo blinked at the contradictory orders, but didn't argue. "I think they hooked us up to electric muscle stimulators, to keep us from going soft. Been pumping nutrients into our bloodstream, obviously, and with the spacesuit taking care of all the stuff coming out, we were snug as rivets in a bulkhead."

A slow realization dawned on Wufei, and with it a feeling of horror. "I've left the colony without a guardian. In a whole month, OZ might have-" Wufei slammed his fist into a console. "Damn! How could I let this happen? Trapped like a stupid animal-" shaking with rage, he tried to bring himself back under control.

With a sudden frustrated anger, he looked at Duo. "Unlike you, I'm not fighting for glory. I'm fighting for justice, and the minute I find the means, I am returning to Earth. You can finish the scientists mission." He spat the last word out with contempt, still shaking with emotion. How could he be so weak...trapped and manipulated like a child, humiliated, useless.

Refocusing, he noticed that Duo had gone very still. A silence dragged out in the cockpit, and still Duo just looked at him, his eyes practically crackling with unspoken words. Those words, however, never came.

"So be it, Wufei. I guess we're on our own."

And with that, the vidlink shut off, and while Wufei was left with the external peace he had been wanting, the thoughts inside of him ruined the effect.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: As warned in my profile, I write like a bittorrent, and this chapter follows a massive gap in the timeline and plot. I trust that your imagination can readily fill in the holes until I can do it for you. Thx! Hope you enjoy.

* * *

The fuel arrived on Saturday, and Duo, Wufei, and Misato went down to the port to meet the tanker. The two pilots had already transferred the Gundams to the massive military docks, and so when Misato swerved her car up to the machinery in a manner that had Duo grinning like a maniac, both young pilots critically surveyed the setup. Deathsythe and Shenlong were still lying down on the open concrete, but since they had left them there, the docking crew had surrounded them with cranes, trucks, and various machinery. The tanker docked alongside was tremendous, and Duo whistled in appreciation.

"When you said we were getting a shipment of fuel, damn, you meant it."

Misato slammed the car into park and tilted her sunglasses as she turned to look at him. She smiled smugly. "The Americans like their big ships. But it's not all fuel, just so you know."

Wufei gracefully slid out of the car and Duo popped up behind him. "Americans? Like, baseball hat Americans?"

"Yeah. Anyways, the fuel crews are over there." She pointed towards the hub of activity near Deathsythe. "I'll leave you in charge of that operation. I got some other things to talk to the captain about." A burly military man with an impressive uniform was walking towards them, and Misato's face changed magically from cranky older sister to the woman who had politically wooed the tanker here in the first place.

"Captain Reynolds, pleased to finally meet you in person." They shook hands. "I hope the trip went smoothly?"

"Of course it did." He looked over her shoulder and grunted. "These kids your bodygaurds? I didn't think NERV was getting that desperate." Wufei crossed his arms and cocked an imperious eyebrow at the American, and Duo, who had already crossed his arms as he watched the activity around his Gundam, graced him with a similar look.

In an almost comical act of solidarity, Misato crossed her arms too. "These _kids_, Captain, are the pilots for those machines." She nodded towards the Gundams. "And if we can leave them to get their suits refueled, then I believe we have some other issues to discuss--"

"GET THAT FUEL HOSE OUT OF THE GODDAMN EXHAUST PIPE-"

Both adults stared in shock as Duo took off sprinting towards the Gundams, swearing like a pirate. Wufei stalked quickly after, looking slightly worried about what they doing to his own mobile suit.

Misato held her breath until the captain began roaring with laughter. Worried about how he'd take to his crew being ordered around by two underage boys, she eyed him warily until he began to get his breath back. Still gasping, he motioned for her to follow him back up the gangplank and through the bustling sailors. "That will give my crew a wakeup call. And now-" He looked back and grinned ambitiously - "We have some military matters to discuss."

* * *

Half an hour later, when I had finally pulled the overzealous work crew into some semblance of order and they weren't in danger of blowing the fuel tank up, I actually took notice of the men around me. The fueling process was slow because of their jet-fighter sized equipment, and now the men were sitting about, staring at the Gundam with appreciative eyes, and chattering. I looked back to where Wufei was sitting meditating in the sun on his suit. It would be awhile before the fueling equipment got to him.

A suntanned and greasy mechanic walked towards me, and I looked up and smiled at him. He was smoking a cigarette, and I couldn't help wondering why he hadn't dropped the habit, considering he was working on an fuel tanker.

"Hey kid, sorry for almost dousing your machine back there."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I just hope you don't make a habit of sticking objects where they don't belong."

He guffawed, and I saw a network of tattoos on his slightly flabby arms. "Nah, I'm more into putting things where they fit, if you know what I mean." We both shared a smile at the joke. He chuckled and took another pull from his cigarette. "But I gotta admit, kid, that is one weird machine."

Another crewmember walked up, wiping his hands with a dirty rag. "No shit, dude. I know the Japs are into crazy machines, but even they are supposed to meet international compatibility standards."

Time for some interference. I tipped the brim of my baseball cap up a notch and leaned on the platform railing.

"Yeah, well, Angels are weird as hell too, and let me tell you guys," I winked conspiratorially, "These babies fight like nothing you've seen before. If the plumbing works, abnormality doesn't matter."

I plastered a cocky grin on my face and turned around to get a better look at them. The first one grinned back and stuck a hand out. At least shaking hands hadn't changed on this planet. "I'm Fred."

"Duo Maxwell, at your service." I looked over at the second mechanic, who had browner skin and a friendly, joking face.

"I would shake your hand, but I'm kinda greasy," he said as he held his hands up, and then started to grin uncertainly when I roared with laughter. I noticed some of the other mechanics nearby look over in curiosity.

"Hell, man, I practically live in grease. I'm a scrap man when I'm not piloting this work of beauty." I shoved my hand out, and he delightedly shook it.

"No shit, man? I junk old cars like no-one's business. I'm Jose."

As he released my hand, Jose suddenly gave me a curious look. "Hey, hermano, it's great to see a Yank all the way over here, you know? But where the hell you from? You've got kinduva funky accent. Like..." he peered at me..."Brooklyn Canadian, or some weird shit like that."

I'll admit, I was a bit giddy to be talking to real Americans. I mean, growing up in a predominately American community of space colonists, who were descended from Americans on the planet who were in turn descended from the Americans who boarded a space ship and left the country that these blokes came from really put some distance between us. But they thought I was one of them. I found myself wondering how a cultural identity could go so long without being more warped.

Well, maybe I could find out. For a kid without a background, finding ancestors isn't a small deal.

Fred looked at me too. "Nah, I don't think they have butt long braids in Brooklyn. Hey, let's try guessing. Eh...Nuevo Los Angeles?"

Jose snorted and I heard someone laughing in the machinery station right above us. As usual, my mind had taken a tally on the people around, and I knew he'd been listening in since we started talking. "Fred, haven't you ever met anyone from NLA? Oh right." A thin thirty-something redhead popped a face over. "You just assumed because he had weird hair he came from the West Coast right?"

Fred looked up at the slightly huskier accent. "Not true, Dom. We base on the Pac-side, so duh I met folks from over there. And they sound a bit like Duo 'ere."

Jose was still watching me curiously. I was leaning back and watching the men talk with an easygoing grin. I'd never admit to them, of course, that I found the whole conversation fascinating. "I don't think I've 'eard a voice like yours, mister. Not from Pac-side, I know that." I must have looked like I was about to speak, because he shook his head and said "Hey, don't tell us yet, k?"

The redhead looked over again. "Well, I reckon it's not Pac-side, sure ain't the midwest, and it ai'nt quite east-side either. And sure as HELL ain't British."

Fred suddenly looked up in triumph, and pointed a finger at me. I couldn't stop grinning. "I got it. 'E's from the Gulf! Why not? I always thought I'd meet someone from there, you hear about some folks still hanging on."

The two other men looked thoughtful, as the machinery thrummed satisfyingly and the salty breeze kept the sun from making them uncomfortable. This was turning into a damn good day.

Jose looked triumphant. "Well, sure, man. Maybe you are from the Gulf. The news does say people are still living where Florida used to be, right?"

Dom nodded eagerly. "Right! I read they eat alligators and stuff, which I guess makes sense. So kid." They all looked at me. "Where you really from?"

I'd had time to think of an answer while they talking. "You want the truth? You figured I sound a bit funny, and it's because I've never been to North America. I grew up in a colony. I mean, most people around me were American, so I suppose I am too."

Several more curious service-men were listening on the outskirts, and some of them nodded. I realized I may have told them something that didn't seem too far-fetched.

"So you haven't been to the homeland then." I shook my head at Jose. "You grow up with the Japs?"

"That's confidential information, pal. Telling you exactly where I came from would be a really bad idea."

Fred looked disappointed, and I felt a bit guilty. I don't feel guilt that easily, but I'll be the first to admit that I wanted to make a good impression on these men, and I wanted them to see me as a fellow. "Well, let's just say it doesn't matter too much where the colony was, because we never left it much. It could have been on Mars and it wouldn't have made much of a difference."

"Duo, where were your parents from?" A young guy on the sidelines piped in.

I blinked. Shit. Should have seen that coming. I hated this topic, the pity it brought, the whole can of worms it opened, that same can that was not only emotionally dangerous, but would not win me any validation as a Gundam pilot. I wasn't ashamed of where I came from. But I also wasn't looking for the attention.

But then, I don't lie.

"No idea. I didn't know them." I shrugged casually and tried a grin. "For all I know, they were from New Orleans."

Fred crowed in triumph. "I could be right! " As I looked around, I was surprised to see that none of the faces held that sympathizing pity that I had come to despise so much. None of them looked surprised about my lack of parents. I felt another rush of something...well, it was good.

An older jowly guy with dark skin and an intricate web of tattoos on his arms was leaning over the railing. "Yeah, dead parents sure make it hard for a man to track family history." He looked absently at his hands. "Who knows where anyone is from anymore."

Dom looked down. "I think I'm from Hungary."

Fred craned his neck to look at the red-head. "What, like, from nine hundred years ago?"

"Hey, go easy. I think Dominic is a Hungarian name."

"Dominic is French, you moron."

Jose looked at me. "All I know is, Dominic is a pretty stupid name for a crane operator."

I laughed garrulously. They reminded me of the Sweepers, a little less hard around the edges, but just as friendly, pushy, straightforward, and witty. "Well, Dominic isn't bad compared to one guy I knew." I looked up at a smarting Dominic. "Try operating heavy machinery with a name like Starlight!"

As the men roared with laughter, I took a moment out of my small triumph to look over at my mobile suit. The fuel was uploading at a kiloliter per minute, which meant that Deathsythe's tank was almost full. It wasn't perfect fuel, especially with the high lead concentration and the organic base, but considering Earth still mined oil from the ground, it was the best we could get. As there was no oil on Mars, we made superior stuff synthetically. But this checked out.

I looked over. Wufei was still a white spot on the chest of his Gundam, still meditating. Meditating is something I can't understand. Who would want to physically sit still and ruminate? Maybe he just thought about battle tactics, or honor or something, but he seemed to meditate so often that I couldn't imagine him doing that the whole time. In my experience, you think too much, and you turn into a miserable blob of depression. I'd had enough of that in solitary confinement, thank you very much. Hence fraternizing.

"So anyone mind telling me where this fuel comes from?" I looked at the men with what I knew was an extremely endearing expression of interest and comradery.

"We aren't supposed to tell that kinda stuff, you know. Have to keep the jealous countries in the dark, and all that." Frank huffed on his cigarette again. "Which sucks because I think you really check out."

I felt a little happy feeling, and kept plowing forward. "What, are they scared of Japan swooping down and taking over their oil fields? I would think people would be more worried about Angels than squabbling over shit like that."

One of the workers behind nodded vehemently. "You'd think it would be that, and damn, it should be. Did you hear that some country in Arabia just tried to get rid of the American outpost? Listen, if there is any country that could help them out if another angel comes down, it's us. Stupid." He looked over at Duo. "You know, that suit you pilot is probably being eyed by a lot of people. I say just use it against the Angels, but some countries just can't get over themselves."

I looked up casually at Deathsythe as he gleamed black in the sun. "People still think about war when the whole planet is under attack?"

Jose nodded. "Crazy, isn't it. At least America just keeps the weapons to protect against the Angels."

"Hey, if an Angel attacks us on our side, think we could talk you into bringing your machine over and helping us out, Duo?" Dom grinned like it was a joke, but I could tell that he was also being serious. "Those EVA's are real works of art, I hear, but the government will never let them out of Neo Tokyo. Japs protect their own land first."

"The Angels only attack Tokyo 3," someone piped up.

"But have they proved why? The First Coming sure didn't happen there. What's to say they won't come somewhere else?"

Jose shrugged. "Who knows. But hey, kid, you seem like a pretty good Yank. If you get tired of being shoved around by the Japs, I bet we could take pretty good care of you."

The darker-skinned soldier leaning on the railing, who I had the impression was named something like Mitch, or Gitch, or something, suddenly turned around. "And you was wondering where the oil came from, too, kid. Let me tell you, cuz I know you ain't a NERV goonie," He looked around him as if checking for spies, "but all that oil comes up from Alaska. We got tons of it. Forget shipping it out here, we could keep your machine running until the apocalypse."

"Yeah?" I looked at him coolly. They apparently weren't aware that Deathsythe ran mainly on a fusion generator, not fuel. But while I kept that to myself, I wasn't about to lead anybody on. I don't like to lie, in case you hadn't noticed. "I'm not too keen on fighting wars for people on this planet, if you know what I mean."

Jose looked affronted. "Wars? Sheet. Do we look like the kind of guys that want wars?" I took the moment to look at them, simple, straightforward, hardworking smartasses, some with family and kids at home. They weren't saints, but they weren't bad men. "We're just...you know how bad the Coming was, we all know that. And frankly...we're all scared shitless."

"Watch how you use my name, tacoboy." Jose grinned at Frank, who was pretending to be miffed.

"Well, I hate to tell you guys, but..." I motioned my head at Deathsythe and sprawled casually back against the railing again, "these suits probably wouldn't make much of a difference against an Angel. The EVA's are the real fighters, and we just serve as backup."

"You mean that thing can't take an angel? It's huge!" Dom looked amazed, and while I hated to play down my buddie's ability to handle anything, I knew the truth.

"An EVA is over twice as large, and it has shields. Don't get me wrong, Deathsythe is great, but-" in the middle of my thought, I felt the thrumming of the fuel pump change pitch. I leaned over the railing and waved at the man about fifty feet above us in the control booth. "Hey! Cut the fuel! He's full!" He waved in acknowledgment, and the men began returning to their controls. I jogged over with Jose to the fuel inlet, and I motioned for him to stay on the ground in the shadow of the Gundam while I climbed up to check on the tank. A few minutes clambering around in the cockpit and on Deathsythe's chest and I felt pretty good about the whole operation.

"You guys did a nice job!" I shouted down at Jose, who waved.

"Of course we did! Who'd you think we were, hombre? Canadians?" I grinned back down to acknowledge the quip, though I didn't get it, and then looked over at Shenlong. The crew already had most of the equipment into position, and I could see Wufei jumping down to talk with whoever was operating the crane that supported the hose. Probably the redhead from Hungary. "I'd love to see them mingling with Chang," I muttered under my breath. Actually, I knew it would probably piss me off, so I stayed with Deathsythe. I had to deal with Wufei enough on my own time.

Half an hour later, I ran out of things to check in the cockpit, and despite my premonitions, I began strolling towards the operation around Wufei. They were finishing up, and I could see Wufei standing imperiously next to the fuel pump, no doubt making sure they didn't so much as leave fingerprints on his Gundam. I'd thought my affection with my suit was weird, but Wufei had proved that his was even more extreme.

I wandered up and stood next to him, careful not to come from directly behind. "Well, Wufei, nothing like good old American service to brighten your day." He gave me a look that clearly said Americans were the loudest scum of the earth, and I was one of them, so I flashed him a Maxwell smile and left for other company. Smalltalk with Wufei was impossible, and I wasn't sure why I keep trying. Same reason I'm still alive, I guess. Irrational stubbornness.

I clambered up the crane and joined a surprised Dom in the control booth. "Don't scratch the paint," I warned as he operated the hose away from Wufei and 'Nataku'. "I may be the God of Death, but if there is one thing more deadly than messing with me, it's touching Wufei's gundam."

"You're a strange guy, Duo, but I'll be damned if you aren't right on the money. That dude is an asshole. And he's what--" Dom took a peek over the control panel. "Like, 17 years old or something?"

"Try younger, and try hanging out with him all the time." I huffed in exasperation and slumped back on the empty spinning seat, just a foot away from the side of the cab. "I so much as fart, and the guy stares at me like I'm borderline retarded."

I looked over, and the man was too intent on his work to answer. I had the gut instinct that Dom wasn't very experienced with this job. A sudden lurch of the equipment, a sheepish 'oops' face, and some swearing from down below confirmed my hunch.

Knowing this, I swung back down. One thing I don't like doing is hanging around ill-managed machinery. Having been one of those inexperienced operators at one time, I'm all too aware of the mini-disasters just waiting to happen.

Wufei was up on his Gundam checking to see that everything was satisfactory, (which I'm sure none of it was, anal-retentive ass), and the twenty men who had been taking part in the operation were finished with their jobs. A saw a few of them gawking at the skyline of Tokyo 3, and a few more still looking admiringly at the Gundams, as if they couldn't get enough of them. I sighed. If they saw the EVA's, I doubted Deathsythe would be getting as much attention. "Sorry, old boy," I murmured. "I can tell you from experience, being the underdog sucks." Of course, as far I could tell, the EVAs and Angels were the only things on the planet that we were the underdogs too. The huge American tanker was impressive, but Deathsythe and I had gutted and burned similar models without breaking a sweat. The massive canons that were hidden beneath those protrusions on the bow looked like they were fit only for basic explosive shells, and the smell of exhaust told me that the ship ran solely on carbon-based fuel. It was like it was waiting to blow up. Easy. First run your sythe along the sides to allow water in the hull, take out the control bridge, look for an engine room near the back of the ship where the steam of exhaust was rising up-

"Maxwell."

"Eh? Oh, hey Wufei." I blinked out of my reverie and looked at him. "What did I do this time?"

To the men looking on, I knew we made a sharp contrast. I was dressed all in black, sauntering casually around, my baseball cap pulled down low over my face, untidy bangs obscuring what the hat didn't. Wufei was dressed almost completely in white, standing straight and with a noble attitude, completely and utterly aloof. Interestingly, my physical presence seemed to ask to hide, but I knew I was the talkative one, and the one that was openly accessible. Wufei, with his upturned face and clear as daylight, not hiding persona, was the inapproachable.

Wufei turned his body away as if to leave, and then tilted his head to the side so he could see me. "Next time you fuel up, don't let the men smoke. I don't want to have to deal with an explosion caused by your stupidity."

I crossed my arms. "Yeah, well you know what, Wufei?" Before I could say anything, the asshole was already walking away with his back straight, the conversation completely forgotten.

I snarled and closed in on myself, tilting my hat even lower. I heard a deep-throated snicker on my right, and glanced over at an ape-like sailor putting away a tool kit. "Hey, you." He jerked his head in my direction. "Makes me feel good to know we got a red-blooded American piloting our mobile suits here. I hate to think that stupid chink is having anything to do with it."

I froze.

"What did you just call him?" The moron must have not heard the icy quality in my voice, because he actually responded.

"Fucking chink, that's what he is. Stupid as the rest, too. Should just send them all back to their country and let them starve on rice, leave the fighting to men like you and me who actually have some quality-"

Three seconds later, the sailor was shocked to find himself on his back on the cement, the wind knocked out of him, his arms twisted beneath him, and the air threatening to be squeezed out of his windpipe. A face two inches away from his own snarled, and in that moment, he felt more terror than he would care to remember.

"Do not...ever...use that word against my friend again." Duo ground out, his teeth gritted.

The man gurgled. "Please-"

Four more seconds and I heard the shouting and scrambling of men as they pulled me off him and yanked him to his feet. His face was red and he gasped for breath.

"Are you crazy?" Frank was staring incredulously, and I was breathing heavily and shaking with the now controlled fury. I was not however, putting up a fight and the men just gathered around me uneasily, not restraining. "What was that for? You don't just go around strangling people, I don't care who you are, you don't go knocking down an American soldier on peaceful ground..." his ranting continued, and while I tried to collect myself, I heard the one sound I really, really didn't want to heard at that moment.

"Maxwell!"

Wufei striding towards me again. Well, shit. As I stood there livid with every muscle tensed, Wufei walked to within five feet of me, and with everyone watching, looked me up and down with an expression of absolute disgust. Finally, he ended at my face. I'm usually in a league of my own when it comes to exchanging hard looks, but Wufei was something else. We were looking booster rifles at each other.

I'm proud to say I didn't break first. Wufei curled his upper lip, turned to look at the man I had put in a state of panicked shock, and then looked back at me. "Pathetic."

I let him walk away without so much a break in my expression, or a break in my stance. The men all stood in the same positions, uneasy, nervous, and with fascinated expressions. I turned back to look at the redfaced and furious sailor. Trying to regain some dignity after being KO'd by a lightweight 15 year old, he pushed the sailors helping support him away, and gave me a sneer. I wouldn't give him a chance to redeem himself, so I turned and started to walk away.

"Hey, kid!" he croaked after me, no doubt feeling safety in numbers. "The chink is right, you are path-"

I admit I kind of lost it at that point.

It was just a word. It could be that the word had developed completely different meaning back home than here, or that it meant 'kid' in their country's military. But deep down, I doubted it. I knew the word. It was an American word. And I would never, ever let it be applied towards Chang Wufei.

I moved like lightning and clocked the guy where he stood, right in the chin, so hard that he actually knocked the two guys behind him over when he fell. Naturally, Frank and the rest of the crew didn't take to that so well, and so I found myself trying to swear and cuss and squeeze myself out of an all-out dog-pile. Thing is, they didn't really want to hurt me, and I didn't really want to hurt them, so no one got seriously hurt, though I did see a mechanic miss me and punch his buddy in the eye. That was pretty funny and made icing my own black eye the next day not quite as bad.

* * *

The next day, I was icing my left eye with a bag of ice, and had stuck bandaids on the war-wounds scattered around my body. I looked like I had gotten in a fight with a regiment of soldiers, which, in fact, I had. I was taking apart a hand-held computer I had picked up at the local convenience store. Unscrewing panels with one hand isn't easy, so I was a little frustrated. That's when Wufei came in.

* * *

I had been thinking about Maxwell's tussle nonstop since it happened, and I finally decided that to move my mind on to something else, I would have to confront him.

"Maxwell."

The boy didn't look up from the scattered parts on the table. "Yeah, man. What's up."

"Why did you attack the soldier?"

* * *

Damn. The last thing I wanted to do was explain why I had taken the guy out. While I would swear like a pirate, there was some cultural baggage that I was just ashamed of. He didn't need to know about that. Which meant playing interference. And, I thought, as I shoved a screwdriver underneath the audio chip, I wasn't going to lie myself into a hole.

"I'd rather not say, man." He already thought I was the scum of the world, so this couldn't make it any worse, right? Wrong.

"Let me guess. They said you looked like a girl, or worse. Maybe that you were an inferior warrior." I looked up to see an ironic and hard smile on Wufei's face. "Sometimes the truth hurts, Maxwell."

* * *

Maxwell needed to be taken down a notch. His ego was going to get him into trouble, Wufei thought. He wouldn't admit then that he actually thought Maxwell was an extremely good pilot. However, his methods were...ignoble. Uncontrolled. There was no power or force or greater thought behind them, just fury, the same fury that he had seen come out yesterday afternoon. I don't know what Maxwell fights for, but it shouldn't be over his own ego. The idea of an uncontrolled and loudmouth juvenile delinquent commanding one of the most powerful machines in the history of man made his stomach roil. He didn't think even he was worthy to pilot Nataku. If he was worthless because of his weakness, Duo was no different. They were both unworthy, he knew. It was wrong for Duo not to be aware of this. A true warrior had to be aware of his unworthiness, in order to earn his strength.

* * *

"Well, Duo, aren't you just the masochistic moron." Duo let the ice pack fall to the table with a thump. "You asked for it." The question now was, did he wallow in self-pity for this unjust turn of fates? No. He could tell Wufei that he owed Duo, but that seemed pretty cheap. Better to just suck it up, though it did hurt, a lot. "Maybe Wufei meditates on how to be mean." That made him feel better, and he actually chuckled at the image of Wufei serenely trying to think up ways to short his sheets or make his life miserable. He didn't chuckle that much though. Anyways, things weren't that funny unless they were ridiculous or out-of-the-ordinary.


End file.
